The Plan
by in luv with svu and sg1
Summary: Jack and Sam come up with "a Plan". I fail at summaries. Basically it's my thoughts on why Sam wasn't around at the beginning of season 9. please read and review :)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. I had to take my laptop to get fixed then I started writing X-Files (which I'd love for you to read and review if you're interested) and I started college. So as you can see I've been pretty busy but finally I've started uploading a new story and I'll hopefully update every other day or so. Let me know what you think as always reviews are so greatly appreciated ;) **

**Setting: **Right before season 9 (after the fishing trip at the end of season 8)

**Disclaimer:** Not mine.

* * *

He looked over at the woman laying next to him, with this huge grin on his face. "What?" She asked self consciously.

"Nothing." He shrugged and continued to smile.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"No reason."

"Stop." She said blushing. He ignored her request. "I'm serious, stop." she said giggling in embarrassment. He rolled over onto his side and continued to look at her. "Do you know how ridiculous you look with that smile on your face?"

"I don't mind." He shrugged again.

"Tell me why you're smiling or I'll leave." She said sternly.

"You won't leave." He said calling her bluff.

"Just tell me." She rolled over onto her side too.

"It's just you're so beautiful." He said tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. She smiled and looked at him thinking about all the events leading up to this point.

_Two weeks before_

"Thanks again, sir, for inviting us on this little fishing trip."

"You guys deserved a vacation, after saving the world AGAIN. What is that 8, 9 times?"

"I'm not counting." She smiled.

"No, but I heard Teal'c is."

"Yes," She laughed a little. "Yes he is. Well thanks anyway, this was fun."

"Yeah it was." He looked at the ground trying to figure out how to say what he wanted to say, "So are you all packed up?"

"Yep."

"The boys are still packing, right?"

"I think so." She said trying to figure out where he was going with this.

"Good. I wanted to talk to you about something." He paused awkwardly. "Wanna go outside with me?"

"Ok?" She started to follow him out to the deck "Is everything ok, sir?"

"Yeah yeah, everything is ok, actually it's kind of great." He said sitting on a bench and motioning for her to sit next to him.

"Ok, now I'm worried." She sat down slowly.

Jack laughed "No it's fine," he thought some more about how he was going to say this.

"Sir, what's going on?"

"Just trying to figure out how to say this." he said looking at the ground.

"At the risk of sounding redundant, what's going on?" Jack continued to look at the ground. "Are you dying?" she asked.

"No! Why would you even think that?!"

"I don't know, you're acting really strange."

"I'm not dying, just getting promoted."

Her eyes got huge and she was speechless. There were so many things she wanted to say but nothing came out. Finally she managed to get one word out, "Promoted?"

"Yep. Moving to DC." She still couldn't speak so she did all she could do, continue to stare at him with an extremely confused look on her face. "I'm being put in control of _Homeworld Security_" still she stared. "I know what you're thinking "Jack are you nuts? Washington?"but what can I say? It's a great pay raise." He waited for a response "Still nothing? Come that was a joke. I know it's a shock, me in DC I can hardly believe it myself, but you really should say something here."

"I'm- I'm-I'm speechless." She finally said.

"Well at least it's something."

"Why?" she said not quite sure what she meant by it but it was the only thing she could say.

"Why what?"

"Why?" she said again.

"You know Carter, usually I'm the one that's bad at this talking thing. This isn't like you."

"I'm just surprised, to say the least. I never thought you'd….." she stopped herself from saying something she'd regret.

"I'd what?"

_You'd leave me _she thought but knew she couldn't say that so she did her best to cover, "Uh. End up in DC. I never thought you'd end up in DC."

"Oh yeah, I never thought I would either. But it made the most sense."

"Why?" she asked afraid to hear the answer.

"Because I can't work with you any longer." He said point blank.

"Excuse me?" she said completely shocked.

"I. Can't. Work. With. You." He repeated emphasizing each word.

"Why?" Same question she's been asking the whole time.

He kind of laughed to himself "It's not you, it's me." He looked up into her eyes. "I know we agreed never to let this… _thing_ we have get in the way of our work, but it has." He took a deep breath "you have no idea what it feels like to watch you go through that 'gate everyday knowing there's a damn good possibility you won't make it back. And I sit there completely unable to save you."

"But I-" she tried to talk but he cut her off.

"At least when I was out in the field I could protect you, but now, now I'm stuck in that damn office, just watching you go."

"But I-" She tried to talk but he cut her off, again.

"Quite frankly, Sam, I can't do it anymore. I just can't."

This time she didn't try to speak. "You called me Sam." She said after a few moments of silence.

"I… I guess I did. I'm sorry it must have slipped out."

"It's ok." She smiled letting herself get wrapped up in the moment. "But, General," she emphasized the word _general_ trying to pu;; them both back to reality. "Like I was trying to say, I am more than capable of taking care of myself."

"I know that. I do." He reassured her, not sure what else to say.

"When do you leave?" she finally asked breaking the silence.

"Two weeks, end of the month."

"That soon?" she asked not knowing what else to say.

"Yep."

"I can't believe you're going to Washington. Are you sure about this?"

"Already accepted the job, in fact I've been looking at replacements already."

"You know I'm still going to be out there. Torturing yourself by working in DC isn't going to change that."

"You want to talk about torturing myself? I spend most of my day with you, so close to you, all the while knowing I can never be with you. I know you'll still be out there but maybe it'll help make it easier not seeing you every day." The words kind of flew out of his mouth.

Her eyes filled with tears as she thought about his words.

"Hey, hey none of that." He said putting his hand on her cheek and brushing the tears under her eyes.

"It's not going to be the same without you sir." She said trying to ignore the tears.

"Maybe that's for the best, Colonel." He said as she teared up again knowing he was correct. Without saying a word he lifted his hand off her cheek and placed it on the back of her neck, slowly pulling her head closer to his head. Then he ignored everything and kissed her. It was only for a moment but in that moment they both lost all sense of right and wrong and for the first time they forgot all about their rules and regulations and they just did what felt right. But then the moment was over. She pulled away and looked at him. "What do we do?" she asked.

"Whatever we do should involve a lot more of that." He smiled "A LOT more." He repeated.

"Sir, this is serious."

"I'll retire."

"I won't let you retire for me."

"I've been trying to retire for years."

"We both know you can't stay retired." She smile then got an idea "You're going to command Home world security?"

"Yeah? Where are you going with this?" He wondered.

"What does that cover?" she could tell by his expression he was confused so she explained "Obviously the Stargate. The Prometheus?" he nodded yes.

"Pretty much anything to do with the Stargate."

"What about Area 51?"

"No, but I still don't see where you're going with this."

"I'm going to transfer to Area 51." She smiled.

"No you're not."

"Sir?"

"Earth needs you out there on the front lines."

"We've defeated the Goa'uld, the Replicators AND Anubis. There are no more bad guys. And besides I wasn't the only person out there. Daniel and Teal'c will still be there and there are 15 other SG teams. Earth will be fine without me. Plus I'll still be helping with Earth's defense, figuring out how to work all the alien technology. I really have been thinking about this for a while." She sensed Jack's uncertainty. "This is the only way we can do this-" She said as she kissed him one last time.

"I do like doing that." He said after she pulled away.

"I do too." She smiled, "but that has to be the last time, until I transfer."

Before Jack said anything else Daniel walked out onto the porch where they were sitting. "There you guys are. We were looking for you. Teal'c and I are all packed up and- did I interrupt something?" he cut himself off, feeling that awkward tension he commonly feels when he interrupts one of Jack and Sam's conversations.

"Nope. We were just talking." Jack said.

"Uh-huh I'm sure." He said knowing he interrupted something but not really in the mood to try and get them to admit they're lying. "Well, like I was saying Teal'c and me and packed and ready to go when you two are."

"We'll be in in a moment." Jack said.

"Take your time." Daniel yelled over his shoulder already walking away.

"We should go in." Sam said.

"Yeah we should." He agreed as neither of them moved.

"Just a couple more weeks, we can do this." she said standing up.

"It's gonna be a long couple of weeks." He said following her inside.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I forgot to say in the 1st chapter that every chapter is gonna start out at the same time then flash back. So the last chapter flashed back 2 weeks then this one is 1 week, so 1 week past the the last chapter not 3 weeks from when the original start. I think you probably would have figured that out but I wanted to clarify.**

"This is real, right?" She asked looking into the eyes of the man lying next to her.

"Or it's one hell of a good dream." He said.

"A _really_ good dream." She said grabbing his hand. He smiled. "Can we stay like this forever?" She asked.

"It'd get boring after a while. I do get boring after a while you know."

She laughed a little. "I know but I don't want this to end."

_One week ago_

"So…" he said walking into her lab.

"So," She repeated not sure what to say.

"How's it going?" he asked awkwardly.

She knew he was referring to "the plan" they came up with at the cabin, after all, this was the first time they've talked one on one since they came up with it. "I put in my request to be transferred a couple days ago. Haven't heard anything yet."

"Oh, I'm assuming that's what this is." He handed her an envelope. She grabbed it and opened it right away trying not to seem too anxious. She skimmed over it reading the main parts. She put the letter down and looked at him expressionless. "bad news?" he asked.

She smiled "I'm going to area 51"

"Why would you scare me like that?" he asked smiling.

She shrugged, "Thought it'd be funny."

"Was it?"

"Mhm." She nodded.

"So when do you transfer?"

"First of the month, actually my last day here is the 31st then I have a week off _then_ I start at Area 51."

"What a coincidence I have a week off before I start in Washington." He said.

"I know." she smiled. "And I won't be in your chain of command during that week." She raised her eye brows.

"I like where this is going." He said.

"However right now you're still my superior so it'd be wildly inappropriate to talk about anything that may happen after that."

"What if I invite you, as a friend, out to dinner at a nice restaurant."

"I don't see anything wrong with that." She said.

"The 31st is this Friday right? How about we go out Saturday night?"

"It's a date-well I mean not a date because you're my CO but-"

"Relax Carter I know what you meant." She just smiled at him. "I should go do some paper work. But I'll see you then, well probably I'll see you before then, but well you know what I mean."

Sam laughed at how tongue tied they both get when it comes to this kind of stuff. "I'll see you then."


	3. Chapter 3

"Do you think this is weird?" She asked.

"Is what weird?"

"This," she pulled at her tee shirt.

"My Air Force tee shirt?"

"No, not the shirt," She laughed "But the fact that we spent the night together and neither of us tried anything. I mean, we literally _slept together_ but we're both fully clothed."

"It's not weird." He said. "We're taking it slow. And actually if you think about it, you did technically get in my pants." He teased.

_The day before_

"Sam you ready to go?"

"Just a second Cassie, I'll be right out."

"Come on Sam they're waiting on us."

"Who?" Sam said walking out of her room in a little black dress.

"The restaurant." She covered her slip. "I made reservations."

"Where are we going anyway?"

"It's a secret."

"Well it must be somewhere expensive if I'm supposed to dress like this." she said looking down at her dress. "We should stay here and order a pizza, one last girls night in."

"I've already made reservations and don't worry about money. It's my treat. You've done so much for me since I've came to this planet, it's the least I can do."

"If you insist. But are you sure this dress is appropriate? It doesn't show too much…. You know… cleavage?" Sam said awkwardly.

"It looks fine." Cassie said "Jack will love it." she whispered to herself.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." She smiled.

"No I definitely heard you say something about General O'Neil. Are you still convinced we're meant to be together?"

"Maybe…." She smiled.

"Cass, that's sweet but I'm moving halfway across the country from him. It's not going to happen." She felt bad lying to Cassie but she wasn't ready for anyone to know, especially because she didn't even know what might happen.

"We'll see." Cassie said.

"No we won't." Sam said grabbing her coat and walking out the door.

After a while in the car Sam finally asked "Cassie, are you lost?"

"No we're almost there."

"Where are we going?" Sam asked for the millionth time.

"I'm not telling you." She drove a minute more. "Here we are." Cassie parked the car outside some apartment buildings.

"Cassie? This isn't a restaurant. This is an apartment building. Actually, this is Daniel's building."

"Yeah I left something up there and he wanted to say good bye."

"I'm not dying."

"Come on Sam." Cassie laughed getting out of the car

"Are you really texting right now? You are addicted to that stupid phone." Sam said as the girls rode the elevator up to Daniel's floor.

"Sorry." She said putting the phone in her pocket. "Here we are." Cassie said knocking on Daniel's door.

"Come in." A voice from inside yelled.

"After you." Cassie said as she motioned with her arms.

"Weirdo." Sam joked going into the apartment.

"SURPRISE!" the group yelled.

"Cassandra, you little snot." She said shoving her playfully.

"You're welcome." Cassie said as she made her way over to the table and getting a plate of chips.

Daniel walked over to greet Sam. "Did you do all this?" Sam asked looking around at all the decorations and people.

"Well Jack and me came up with the guest list, and Cassie brought you here and text us when you were coming up, Teal'c actually did the decorations."

"Really?" She made her way over to the sofa where Jack and Teal'c were and sat down next to them as everyone went back to the conversations they were having before Sam got there.

"We're gonna miss you Sam." Daniel said then he raised his beer, "A toast to Sam." Everyone raised their glass.

"Thank you Daniel, it is going to be strange not seeing you guys every day. And thank you everyone for coming." She said. Everyone took a drink then went back to talking in their conversations, again, and Sam turned to Daniel, "You really didn't have to do this."

"Were you surprised?" He asked.

"Yes very."

"Then it was worth it. and a lot of it was Cassie." He said as Cassie joined the group. "I still can't believe you're leaving."

"Oh come on Daniel you knew we wouldn't be doing this forever."

"Yeah I guess." He said.

"And I'll come and visit a lot, Cassie is still here and I'll want to be back when the baby is born."

"Baby?" Daniel lifted an eye brow.

"Cassie didn't tell you?" she turned to face her.

"I was gonna, but I didn't want to take away from your going away party."

"So you're having a baby?" Daniel asked

"Yeah." Cassie said.

"On Chulak it is customary for one to get married then have children." Teal'c said. Everyone paused in an awkward silence.

"Well that's the tradition on Earth too." Cassie said. "But when have I ever been traditional?" She smiled.

"I'm gonna get another beer anybody want anything?" Jack said trying to get rid of the awkward tension in the air.

"Another beer." Daniel said.

"Coke please." Cassie smiled.

"Diet coke." Sam said.

"A bottled water." Teal'c said

"I only have two hands." Jack teased.

"I'll help you." Sam said standing up. Once they were out of hearing range Sam said to Jack, "You look really nice. I can't believe Daniel got you to wear a tie."

"Yeah, I don't really see why the dress code had to be so formal but I didn't feel like arguing with Daniel and Teal'c seemed really excited to dress up." Sam laughed a little. "And look at you. That dress, it uh, does a lot for you, I mean it compliments you really nicely." Sam smiled. "You excited about tomorrow night?" He asked grabbing the drinks from the fridge.

"Can't wait." Sam smiled.

"For what?" Cassie asked walking over and ruining the moment.

"Nothing." Sam's face dropped right away.

"Uh-huh. Well I decided I wanted water instead of. Daniel was telling me what caffeine does to a baby. Not cool." She said grabbing a bottle from the fridge. "I'll give you to some privacy." She winked at Sam.

"It's not like that." Sam said as Cassie walked away.

"Does she know?" Jack asked.

"Of course not but she's been convinced we're going to get together and live happily ever after for years now."

"Smart kid." He said as they rejoined the group.

The party lasted for a while then people started going home and before they knew it all that was left was SG1 and Cassie.

"We should start cleaning up." Sam said looking around at the mess.

"No it's your party go home and relax we can take care of this." Daniel said.

"No I want to help, I'll feel bad."

"Go." Jack said. "Cassie looks tired. And you've got a big day tomorrow."

"What is she doing tomorrow?" Daniel looked at Jack.

Jack, realizing his mistake, quickly covered, "Well she's got a lot of packing to do."

"We can help with that." Daniel suggested.

"No actually I'm pretty much packed and I have a couple more days before I leave. But you know if you guys are sure you have the clean up covered, I will get going. Cassie looks tired and she's my ride home."

The girls packed up and Sam promised to visit one last time before she moves then they headed home. Cassie dropped Sam off and hurried home. Sam walked to her front door but before she even got there she looked at her watch and got in her car and started to drive. She pulled into the driveway and looked at her watch. She waited a minute then walked up to the front door. She rang the bell hoping he was still awake.

The man answered the door, "Carter?" He said "Is everything ok?"

"Look at your watch." She said.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it! What time is it?"

"Twelve o'clock. Why?" He said still confused.

"It's twelve o'clock… A.M…. making it Saturday…. the first."

"And?... OH!" He said as it hit him.

"Yeah. Remember when I said I couldn't wait? Well when I got home and saw the time I realized I didn't have to wait any longer." She stood on his front porch for a minute then asked, "Are you going to invite me in?"

"Oh yeah sure." He opened the door and she walked in then stopped in front of him.

"What do you want to-" He answered her question by kissing her.

"I'm sorry if that was to forward," He pulled away and noticed her smiling assuming that meant she was ok with what he was doing so he kissed her again. They started down the hall kissing the whole time and before they knew it he had her back pinned up against the fridge kissing her up and down her neck then back to her lips ignoring all the magnets falling off the fridge all around them. Then getting lost in the passion of the moment she jumped up and wrapped her legs around him as he took her over to the table which was quickly cleared of all the dishes and paper work that was covering it.

"Ow ow." She said causing him to stop for a moment.

"What's wrong?"

"Fork." She smiled pulling it out from under her.

"Couch?" he suggested already picking her up and carrying her over kissing her the whole way.

"Ow." She said again causing him to stop, again. "Remote." She said pulling it out from under her again.

"Bed." he said picking her up again taking her there.

He laid her down and started to unbutton his shirt when she stopped him. "Wait," she said calmly "I'm not ready for all this. Not yet." She said knowing she'd disappoint him. Jack re-buttoned his shirt and sat on the bed next to her. "I'm sorry." She said sitting up. "It's just really fast and-"

"No, no it's fine. I actually was thinking the same thing. We've waited so long for this, we should do it right." she nodded in agreement. There was an awkward silence for a second but then he suggested, "We could talk for a while."

"That sounds nice." She smiled.

"But first I need to get out of this suit." They both looked at each other then laughed at how awkward that sounded given the situation, "not what I meant, I mean I want to go into the bathroom and change into some sweats. You want some too? I know that dress must be uncomfortable. You probably can't wait to get out of it." He closed his eyes and smiled "again not what I meant."

"I know what you mean and yes I'd love some." He dug threw his drawers looking for the smallest clothes he had then threw them at her and grabbed some clothes for himself. "I'll go change in the bathroom and you can change here. I'll be right back." A few minutes later he returned " knock knock" he said as he knocked.

"It's safe." She yelled. She was already sitting on the bed leaning up against the head rest.

He walked over and joined her. "So what do you want to talk about?" He asked.

"anything, everything. I want to get to know you better. I mean, I've known you for 8 years and all I know about your childhood is you were born in Chicago and grew up in Minnesota. Tell me about your childhood." She said.

"Ack, that's boring stuff. You don't want to know all that."

"Yes I do. I want this relationship to be more than just sex. And I want you to open up to me and trust me," She said grabbing his hand and intertwining her fingers with his.

He took a deep breath, "ok. I was born in Chicago but I had a rough time there because my parents were well known mobsters and feared by almost everyone I met."

"Jack," she said gently kicking him. "Be serious, for once, please."

"Ok, Ok I'll be serious…" Jack proceeded to tell her all about his childhood and when he was done she told him about hers. They talked for hours and hours about whatever topic popped into their minds they talked until they could talk no more and Sam passed out midsentence. Jack, being the gentleman he is went to the other room and grabbed two separate blankets then lay down next to her and fell asleep within minutes.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So sorry it took so long to finish the story! You know how crazy life can get but I'm gonna try and be better with my stories. So enjoy this last chapter and as always I'll love you forever if you leave a review :)**

"Jack," She paused it still felt weird saying his first name, "how are we going to do this?" She asked the man lying next to her.

"Do what?" He knew what but he didn't want to think about it.

"You know what."

"Can we not think about that? Let's think more about this." He raised up the hand holding hers.

"I wish." She said.

"Car-Sam," he caught himself "Relax. For once. Don't think about all that stuff just think about me."

"I want to, sir, I do." It was such second nature for her to call him 'sir' neither of them even noticed it.

"Then do it."

"I can't. We need to talk about it. Before we get too… involved."

"Sam, we both left our jobs for this, we're pretty involved already."

"Can we please just talk about our future, just for a little while?"

He sighed, "What do you want me to say right now?" he started getting a little angry, "That it's gonna be all sun and daisies now? We both know it won't be. It's going to be hard. Really really hard. You're going to be across the country and we will almost never see each other. And to top it off we'll have to keep it mostly secret for a while so people don't think this started before it was allowed to. There, are you happy we talked?"

"Jack, don't be like this." She said letting go of his hand and sitting up.

Jack calmed down and sat up too, "I know it's not what you want to hear but you were the one that wanted to talk."

"Then what are we supposed to do?" She asked knowing he wouldn't know any more then she knew.

"We do what we always do, we make it work." He grabbed her hand again. "We can make this work." He reassured her. "And yes, it will be hard, but compared to what we're usually dealing with this is a piece of cake."

She laughed "When you put it that way, it can't be much harder than saving the planet from certain doom."

"And it can't be any harder than blowing up a sun." He smiled because he knew how much she hates it when people bring that up.

"So we're really going to do this?" She asked.

"You're not having second thoughts are you?"

"Shut up and kiss me." She said.

"Yes ma'am" he leaned in and gave her a little peck but when he went to pull back she put her hand on the back of his neck and kept him close. She slowly slid back down on the bed until she was laying flat. After a few minutes her hands started to pull up his shirt but he stopped her.

"I thought it was too soon?" He said.

"Last night was too soon. It's been like 12 hours." She smiled and worked on his shirt some more.

"We agreed to wait." He reminded her.

"I didn't know it was so important to you." She said.

"We haven't even had our first date." He reminded her "I don't want to rush anything. And relationships that start out with that-"

"Jack," she cut him off "if you don't want to, just say so."

"It's not that I don't want to, believe me, I want to. It's just, I think we should do it right and take it slow."

Sam nodded in agreement "Slow... How slow?" She asked.

"Well none of 'that'." He said. "but we can do so more of this." he said as he leaned down and kissed her.

She smiled. "I do like doing that."

**A/N: That's the end of this story but I wrote a sequel and I'll be uploading it soon. It'll pick up right where this one ends. I actually wrote it as one big story but decided it will be better as two stories. Anyway I'll hopefully be uploading soon so watch for that **


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